Decbmbee 21, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



975 



machine a combination of elegance, practicality, 

 convenience and power, which betokened a race 

 that takes its ease in working. The English 

 machine was more trim and smug, smaller, too, 

 though with no loss of power ; the German, sim- 

 ilar, but a shade more pompous ; the French, 

 lighter and finer in line, but less powerful and 

 effective. So as to the Russians, the Italians; 

 and the Austrians, each locomotive not only had 

 a beauty of its own, but was an impressive sym- 

 bol of the national character. Returning after 

 this voyage of exploration to the great inter- 

 national exposition of painting, M. Alexandre 

 found a pervading sameness — most of the pic- 

 tures might have been done in Rome, in Brook- 

 lyn, in Munich or in Paris, indifferently. It 

 all seemed factitious — the output of a small in- 

 ternational cult, not of great nations. The 

 genuine art of the day was not here, but with 

 the locomotives. The lover of art in its tra- 

 ditional forms will subscribe most reluctantly 

 toM. Alexandre's allegory of the future of art. 

 Yet no one can withhold a sentiment of admira- 

 tion for this bold theory that the art of the fu- 

 ture must grow unconsciously out of its most 

 vital interests — not out of the fine arts in the 

 traditional sense, but out of science and indus- 

 try. 



The British Consul at Stuttgart, in a report 

 abstracted in the London Times, gives some in- 

 teresting particulars respecting the growth of the 

 acetylene gas industry, which he describes as 

 one of the triumphs of German scientific in- 

 dustrialism. Five years ago calcium carbide 

 was known only to trained chemists as an in- 

 teresting chemical compound, and was quite 

 unknown to the public. Now its production is 

 one of the most important chemical industries. 

 Germany was foremost to recognize the new il- 

 luminant, and it has secured the principal place 

 in its production. At present there are at least 

 200,000 jets of acetylene gas in use in the coun- 

 try, and it is, the consul says, impossible to 

 predict the result of the competition between 

 it and its rival illuminants. Probably petro- 

 leum will suffer most ; coal gas will be super- 

 seded to a great extent, especially in lighting 

 small towns, but electricity will not be appre- 

 ciably affected. No other branch of industry 

 can point to such a large and steady increase 



in the number of patents, showing that it has 

 encouraged great fertility of invention. Besides 

 producing it at home, German capitalh as gone 

 abroad to produce carbide, especially to Nor- 

 way and Switzerland. One of the greatest suc- 

 cesses of the industry has been its application to 

 the lighting of railway carriages on German Gov- 

 ernment lines. During the current year the con- 

 sumption of carbide in the country is estimated 

 at 17,000 tons, equal in illuminating power to 

 about seven millions of gallons of petroleum. 

 Thirty two small towns, with populations up to 

 5,000, are lighted by acetylene, and many more 

 contemplate its adoption ; and the progress of 

 the system of lighting, says the Consul, is 

 ' another striking instance of the manner in 

 which the magnificent system of technical edu- 

 cation has prepared the way for the introduc- 

 tion of new scientific achievements.' The eco- 

 nomic importance of the industry appears from 

 the fact that Germany annually pays about five 

 millions sterling to the United States for petro- 

 leum, while acetylene is a purely German indus- 

 try, carbide being manufactured in the country, 

 which possesses in various parts all the neces- 

 sary raw materials. 



Peofbssoe E. Hitzig delivered on Novem- 

 ber 29th the second Hughlings Jackson lecture 

 before the London Neurological Society. Ac- 

 cording to the London Times he discussed the 

 present position of scientific knowledge con- 

 cerning the psychical functions of the different 

 parts of the surface of the brain. Since the ex- 

 perimental discovery in 1870 by the lecturer 

 that a portion of the surface of the brain is 

 divisible into separate areas or centers, each 

 of which initiates and controls the movements 

 of the various divisions of the body, many in- 

 vestigators had endeavored to solve the impor- 

 tant questions, first, whether such areas or 

 centers are really distinct psychical organiza- 

 tions, and, second, how such miniature psychi- 

 cal mechanisms act in relation to the phenomena 

 of voluntary and automatic reactions respect- 

 ively. A summary of the researches which have 

 been made during the last thirty years estab- 

 lishes the truth of the view that such centers 

 really exist, and that we now know definitely 

 the precise spot in the brain which actively 

 causes the movement of an arm and hand, for 



